Living For Unity for His Glory

Main Point:

We are called to walk in the Fruit of the Spirit to bring unity to the church and glory to God

What is Walking Worthy?

Our Walk is our "conduct" - how we proceed to live the life that the Lord granted to us.

We can say a prayer, go to church, be baptized and STILL not be in Christ

We all live in this tension of right and wrong and our desires --- which we need to be strong to honor God in all things.

Its not that bad

I am working on it

But the other person “did.....”

We have all been in these situations

- This is our daily battle

we must learn to increase in choosing the walk that brings Glory to God. ALWAYS!!

lets remember we honor God with our progress, not our perfection

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BUT the question is are you progressing?

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Today’s lesson is that we MUST practical our Christ following,

it is our Mission

the Holy Spirit is at work on our progress by living IN us

--- many times we need to participate, submit, and obey for the purpose of the Church, and Glory bringing to GOD.

Walking worthy is obeying and honoring God in all parts of our life, so that we are changed and are changing others

Walking in a Manner Worthy of the Calling

Lets Review where we are at:

Outlined Concepts of our Study in Ephesians

So our WALK Matters:

Do you know the Fruit of the Spirit? Do you increase in them daily?

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)

Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

Review and anchor:

Paul has established in this letter our position as God's adopted children, His inheritance.

Established in Grace and called to be the church in which Christ is the Cornerstone.

Paul then reveals the mystery of the age that there is a new nation and God's desire is and always has been for salvation available to all.

Paul prays for wisdom in Ch. 1 and then at the end of Ch 3 prays for spiritual strength.

Paul continues to drive down on the practices of daily Christian life;

Oneness with Christ, Oneness with church body,

to comprehend the dimensions of God's Love.

Paul reminds us that all the strength, wisdom and courage we need to do our work will be supplied by Christ according to the will of the Father.

All to bring us to fullness (completeness) in Christ for the Glory of God.

Walking Worthy is our main job in life, it must become our practice, and passion to live according to Christ’s Will, and or own.

The blessing is that we have a helper living inside of us

Walking in the Spirit

Tension:

Community is Messy. People are weird, self serving and do stupid stuff — hey some people are just annoying

that is reality.

the Loud Clapper in church

The longer than i desire sermon

People that chew with mouth open

or just won’t stop talking or won’t talk at all

So we have a choice-

Do we raise above or join them? --- or in reality do we chose to compromise?

Loving others - being full of Grace- because of where they are at — is our job modeled by Christ Himself

Tend to BLEND

what we know is right

with the practice of choosing right.

Normally our solution is to find a blend that suits us -

mixing comfortable with a measure of pleasing God.

Romans 7:15 “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

SCRIPTURE teaches, encourages corrects and rebukes

- the word of God is so graceful.

Telling us that God understands our battle, our sin nature, our wickness,

BUT still loves us!!

Because of our position in Christ as HIS — we need to walk in the manner of our calling --- by exercising humility, gentleness, patience ALL in Love

Humility is caring, thinking and doing for others first.

To not boast of ME but on HIM - others are more important than me

gentleness -

Paul gives us the WHAT -- command to walk worthy

then gave us the HOW - by living out the Fruit of the Spirit in us

Now Paul gives us the Why --- we are to walk as ONE to Glorify God.

Walking as One

Illustration: A man asked his young son to break a bundle of sticks. He returned a little later to find the lad frustrated in the task. He had raised the bundle high and smashed it on his knee, but he only bruised his knee. He had set the bundle against a wall and stomped hard with his foot, but the bundle barely bent.

The father took the bundle from the child and untied it. Then he began to break the sticks easily—one at a time.

So it is with the church: united we are strong, divided we can fail or be broken.

Green, M. P., ed. (1989). Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 sermon illustrations arranged by topic and indexed exhaustively (Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file). Baker Book House.

Do you focus on being bound together with Christ and your Christian Family which is your church?

Ephesians 4:4–6 (ESV)

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

This is very likely an early doxology - a hymn or forming of words to bring praise to God.

interesting is that there is no textual variance in verses 5-6 --- every interpretation is exactly the same

One Body, One Spirit, One Hope, One Lord, One faith, One Baptism, One God, One Father

Do you see the theme, 8 ONES in two verses?

This section of Scripture is DUAL PURPOSED

Personal mission to walk according to the Spirit

Communal - a unified body of Believers that are Focused on doing His will

Explanation:

We are commanded by God's apostle as a Believer to walk rightly (OBEY and FEAR),

to exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit. This will bring Unity (oneness)to the church ---

Centering everything in our life for ONE Purpose

-- one church, one Spirt, one faith, one baptism...

we are all fully joined in CHRIST.

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Paul is writing this from prison —Ephesians of one of the “Prison Letters”

Prison Epistles -Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon

Just look at Paul heart— in his imprisonment he is working for the Lord

a prisoner for Christ --- Bonded to Christ YES — but also stating that it is Christ’s purpose for me and i am submitting and working even in my struggle.

Paul’s Focus is ONENESS - UNITY of the BODY to Glorify God

If we each focus on the same thing [oneness} then as a body we move together.

Together we are stronger, and Bond by Christ we are unbreakable

Illustration: MOVING as ONE

Training in the basics

DRILL DRILL DRILL

unified in general look, clothes

Focused on ARMY OF ONE

Picture in your minds the parades where you see 100 military marching.

you see the GROUP not the individual first

Yet in the same parade there are floats focused on one celebrity

our mission is to be part of our CHRISTIAN NATION

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I have Marine friends that will never say they WERE a Marine

once a marine always a marine - once a Christian always a Christian

This is our IDENTITY or CITIZENSHIP

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marine motto: Semper Fidelis: Latin for “always faithful,”

Semper Fidelis symbolizes the lifelong commitment held by every Marine for the Corps and America, a promise reciprocated by the Corps to all Marines.

This should be our mission as a Christian and as a Church

— to be a Christian first in all things

and be faithful, loyal to the body of Christ, which results in Glorifiying Him

Colossians 3:17 (ESV)

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Can you see that picture in your mind?

The church unified

our congregation unified

not what we want or belief as individuals but as a group

but living according to HIS Commands --- seeking Scripture, not Social Media

We must belong and be active in our Christian Identity

Illustration:

My grandfather used to say. “ Althouses don’t do that”

i understood that my actions were a reflection of my family

--- i never wanted to dirty our family name.

Living for Christ is honoring Christ, Obeying Him, not the world.

Friends this is our mission here. To walk worthy of our calling

to do everything in word and deed

it all reflects HIM

We are Christian first

We are joined and need to be responsible for our walk.

make the right decisions

never wanting to disappoint CHRIST

never wanting to soil HIS WONDERFUL NAME

to Fear the Lord more than i Fear anything else

Walking for His Glory

there is a difference between a floodlight and laser beam?

it is a matter of focal point.

Both have a purpose, and have completely different callings

Just like us.

we must be a laser beam for Christ,

but a floodlight to those around us.

this section of Scripture ends with verse 6

Ephesians 4:6 “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Do you focus on Christ like a laser so that you are a floodlight in your life with others?

we set out this morning to learn why our WALK MATTERS

We are called by Christ, for Christ, to be the Church

We are to walk in all ways in line with the Fruit of the Spirit

this shared focused mission brings ONENESS

Connects the Church in Community

Clarity of Purpose brings Glory to God

To be always faithful, disciplined in our daily walk, doing all and all for Glory to Him.

Conclusion:

We are commanded by God's apostle as a Believer to walk rightly (OBEY and FEAR),

to exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit.

This will bring Unity (oneness)to the church

---Centering everything in our life for ONE Purpose

-- one church, one Spirt, one faith, one baptism...

we are all fully joined in CHRIST.